In today’s digital age and globalized world, long gone is the 9-5 business day that used to be standard for most workers. While today’s fluid work environment offers an incredible amount of flexibility and creative options for both employers and employees, at the same time, there is increased urgency, pressure and expectations that work get work done and delivered fast, at the highest quality and at the lowest cost.

Companies of all sizes need to be able to provide their clients with what they want and need quickly – because if not, someone else will. While large companies with deep resources may have on staff enough employees of a varied nature to satisfy client demands for quality, speed and cost, it is a bit trickier for smaller businesses with more limited resources.

Imagine a situation in which a client approaches your business with a lucrative project that requires a graphic designer who specifically has expertise in animation. Although this project is a great opportunity for the business, it probably doesn’t make sense to hire another graphic designer with these specific skills (when you already have a great designer on your team) and to invest in training and paying benefits when this is a one time project. At the same time, though, the small business owner does not want to turn down this opportunity.

What is a small business owner to do?

One practical and cost effective solution is to hire a freelancer or independent contractor. Although this may deviate from the way the small business is used to operating, there are some major benefits to be gained by hiring out.

Save Money

It is well known that oftentimes full time employees are not actually working all of those hours they are being paid for. On the other hand, freelancers only charge you for the hours they work so a business may end up spending less money for the same work, even when taking into consideration a higher hourly rate. Plus, there are great apps out there to help keep track of freelancers’ hours to guarantee that an hour worked is an hour paid. Some to check out include Toggl, RescueTime, Harvest, Hubstaff, Time Doctor and Timely.

Save On Time

If a freelancer accepts a job chances are he or she is highly motivated to get the project done on time and done well. Since most freelancers’ business model relies on repeat customers, freelancers can be counted on to get the job done promptly, maybe even before deadline.

Save On (Office) Space

Hiring a freelancer means you don’t need to find space for another person to sit in your already cramped office. Not needing to find a larger workspace means business owners will save money on rent. The freelancer will work from home, from the coffee shop, from another country – it doesn’t matter as long as the job gets completed.

Get More Experience

Experienced freelancers have done their time working with a variety of different companies and many come well equipped with a toolbox of eclectic skills that will benefit your company and impress your client.

Gain Access to Global Candidates

Hiring a freelancer allows you to transcend borders and timezones. They can work while you are sleeping and even on weekends, helping to speed up a project or free up time for salaried employees to work on other priorities during the workday.

Overall, hiring a freelancer can give your small business the advantages of motivation and fresh skills, while saving your business valuable resources – time and money being two critical resources that all small businesses owners are seeking to maximize.

One word of caution, however. Both employers and workers need to be clear on who, according to the law, is classified as a freelancer. Sometimes, there are situations in which employers may classify employees as independent contractors when in fact the law sees them as employees. If this is the case, these workers may be eligible to make claims for employee rights and benefits. To prevent any misunderstanding or legal issues down the line, it is best for a worker and employer to execute a written contract that defines the relationship prior to beginning any work.

Lee Madison writes about financial topics relevant to small business owners. She is director of content at Yellowstone Capital LLC.

You must have sought ways to invest in various asset classes from time to time. You’ll get an opportunity by opting for a Unit Linked Insurance Plan. It will even cover you for certain unfortunate circumstances with a life insurance policy. A portion of the amount that you pay towards your premium may be invested in your hand-picked plans. It enhances your chance to achieve a higher return on investment.

If you’re truly eager to achieve your long-term financial goals, your investment portfolio must comprise of ULIPs. Apart from ensuring a cost-effective way of earning more on your investments, a ULIP plan even allows your savings to grow and accumulate more wealth over time.

Compared to other traditional insurance policies, ULIPs yield a unique opportunity for you to enjoy the freedom of customizing your policy while comparing a plethora of options that match your investment needs. Like any other insurance policy or wealth plan, the features of a ULIP plan get you overwhelmed.

Check Out a Few Points on Why ULIPs Are a Good Investment Option:

Multiple Goals:

ULIPs enable you to invest a portion of your premium towards debt, balanced, and equity funds, while the remaining portion goes out towards life cover. Thus, a single product allows you to enjoy the benefits of investment and insurance at once.

Higher Returns:

By opting for ULIPs, you’re actually investing your money across numerous reliable investment options like equity and bonds. ULIPs are a great opportunity for you to obtain quality returns linked to the share market. You won’t enjoy such returns with any traditional insurance policy.

More Flexibility:

The fact that a ULIP enables you to shift from one investment fund to another is a proof of its flexibility. Facts concerning your market performance and risk appetite will help you to pick any of the balanced, equity, and debt funds.

Economic:

ULIPs are certainly amongst the most inexpensive market policies that yield both investment and insurance benefits. The fact that the latest ULIPs don’t demand any policy or allocation costs often makes them more inexpensive than that of the mutual funds. ULIPs are also quite popular due to their tax benefits.

Tax Benefits:

ULIPs can act as an efficient tax-saving tool. The amount that you pay towards your ULIP policy premiums is entirely tax-exempted under certain circumstances. Being a policyholder, you’ll get more chances of extending your savings at a time when there’s no need to pay tax on the amount of premium.

In addition, the portion of your income that’s taxable comprises of deductibles like that of the maturity and death benefit. There’s no reason for you to be concerned about paying a hefty sum as tax out of your savings.

Long-term investment plans like ULIPs are meant for individuals that opt for financial planning for the long run. There’s a 5-year lock-in period that comes with every ULIP. It helps you set your long-term goals in a proper way. The growth that you achieve with ULIPs can help you meet your long-term financial objectives like that of buying a property or fulfilling your daughter’s wedding plans. These days, you may even pick one out of a diverse range of ULIPs.

Managing your finances can be overwhelming when you don’t make use of the right tools to address them. The amount of paperwork will make you shudder if you continue to do things the old-fashioned way.

Making use of technology can revolutionize the way you do your finances. There are services and apps available that will help you simplify payment transactions, staying on top of your savings, and monitoring your personal budget.

Here’s how you can do a better job of managing your money with the help of tech-powered solutions.

1) Register for online banking

Why spend precious time waiting to be attended to in a bank when you can complete your transactions online? Whether it’s checking the balance on your account or transferring funds, you no longer need to go to the actual bank, which saves you money and time.

The major benefit of online banking services is that you have instant access to your money. Plus, with mobile SMS banking, you don’t even have to carry around your laptop. With a few clicks on your phone, you can check payments and see if your budgeting numbers are correct.

The access alone can already help streamline your finances so that you’re always up-to-date when it comes to your money.

2) Opt for paperless

When you see a stack of paper bills inside your mailbox, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by your financial obligations. Sometimes, you tend to place them somewhere you can’t remember, which leads to late fees.

As much as possible, go paperless so that you can easily track your bills the moment they hit your email.

Without the possibility of misplacing your bills, you are less likely to forget due dates of payments. Most utilities and bills have the option for customers to go paperless.

Check if you’re able to sign up for such by taking these steps:

1. Sign in to your online account and check if you have an option to have your bills sent via email.
2. Then, follow the prompts in the email to pay the bills without any extra fuss.

During tax time, it’s a bonus that you no longer have to sort through your stack of bills to gain an idea of how much you’ve spent. You only have to log into your account to look at your statement.

3) Automate payments

If you can, set-up automated payments for accounts that stay consistent every month. So instead of going into your account and paying manually, the amount is debited automatically.

There are many banks that will allow you to have your own auto-pay rules. You can even choose to have the amount immediately sent via check or electronically to your selected service provider.

However, being on auto-pay doesn’t mean you can ignore payments; you still have to check transactions to ensure they’re paid correctly.

4) Combine or eliminate your accounts

When you have countless open accounts, several payments to make regularly, and account maintenance to fulfill, you need to “spring clean.” Streamlining accounts will tidy up your payments and transactions so that you have a simpler path to money management.

Take a look at your regular monthly bills and you may find unnecessary services. If possible, combine or eliminate accounts you don’t need. For instance, if you’re maintaining several credit cards but have one card with a tiny balance, pay it off and close the account. Doing so will leave you with one less payment to remember.

5) Perform a regular budget check

You may have a budget in place, but lining up the numbers isn’t enough to maintain order in your finances. You still have to regularly check your budget to ensure that your numbers are right. Furthermore, you should allow adjustments for any unplanned expenses.

To avoid disorganized finances, you should balance your budget on a regular basis. Make it a habit to schedule a monthly check-up on your budget by following these steps.

● Gather your bills for the month.
● Log-in to your online bank account.
● Look at your account and check if payments match bills and there are no suspicious charges.
● Discuss next month’s expenses with your partner or family.
● Make adjustments to any budgeting numbers that need it. One example is your electricity bill during the summer.
● Ensure that you’re still on track with the financial goals you’ve set.

Don’t let your finances control you. Handle your finances better by using technology and regularly tracking your budget. Remember, how you manage your finances matters as much as the math.

As the saying goes—out of sight, out of mind. And for many, this has been the motto for their pensions. However, the launch of auto-enrolment schemes, increased media coverage and a growing awareness of retirement has shifted these attitudes.

According to the Q2 2017 edition of the Tackling The Savings Gap Consumer Savings and Debt Data report, 598,000 employers were enrolled in a workplace pension scheme. Over the 12-month period, they contributed a collective £87.1 billion. With the popularity of personal pensions continuing, it’s clear to see that Britain is certainly more aware of their pension responsibilities.

Could our other financial commitments be holding back our personal pension savings? The Q3 2017 edition of the report suggests so. During the quarter, 45% of survey respondents failed to make a pension contribution; this was most common in 45 to 54 year-olds (47%). 18 to 24 year-olds had the second largest proportion of people who failed to contribute (44%).

Consider the above in relation to what the report also found. Findings show that a third of its respondents worry about money on a daily basis, while 37% admitted to lying about their debt. Perhaps then it’s not because of a lack of awareness; it may be because their financial situation simply won’t allow them to make a contribution.

Pension contributors added £203 on average to their pensions during Q3 2017. In contrast, the average amount of debt taken on by UK consumers each month stood at £370—significantly higher than the amount put towards their pensions.

A total of £143 per month is spent on average on purchases that are later regretted, the Q3 2017 report found. This includes purchases across food, clothes, alcohol and other items. If this money was invested in a pension instead for the full span from age 30 to 65, it could translate into almost £320,000. Based on the fact that Brits believe they will need £23,000 annually to live comfortably in retirement, this amount would be enough to fund 13 years of retirement.

This monthly spend breaks down to £4.70 per day. As the above example shows, investing this amount instead could lead to a comfortable start to your pension pot for retirement. As such, we shouldn’t underestimate the impact that small yet regular contributions can have. This underlines the importance of better financial management to allow us the capacity to add such funds to our pension pots.

To help you learn more about how much you could potentially need for retirement, True Potential Investor has created the Saving For Retirement: How Much Will You Need? quiz. By answering a series of questions, you can get an idea of the potential pension pot you’ll need—take the quiz today to find out more.

Exploring a few passive means of earning money isn’t bad for those that don’t want to opt for a second job. It’s quite natural for you to think of a consistent source of alternative income that won’t take the juice out of you. Even when you wish to create or join a platform that won’t prove to be taxing, you may need to put in your efforts right at the very beginning.

Consider few of the straight means of earning money as shown below:

Publish your book

Writing a book often lets you achieve a good amount of every sale after it gets published. Self-publishing of books is quite common nowadays; you can do it by checking the e-book options at large. Alternatively, you may get in touch with any publishing house.

Develop smart applications

Developing any smart-phone app has immense potential of earning money when a user downloads it. These apps can fetch a good amount of money as they get more popular with the target audience. Anything that you develop may get viral in no time!

Launch any static blog

Identify your areas of interest besides checking out things that tend to draw the attention of your target audience. Make the most of your website development skills in developing a website in these areas. It’s in your best interest to choose topics that may never get dated with your audience. You may even choose to host ads on a page wherein you have content worth good quality. A piece of content that’s always in demand can actually pay you back on time.

Submit a video on YouTube

Identify a few popular topics for shooting your videos. You may explore it as an opportunity to earn more by running ads on the more popular videos. Earning in seven figures has been a dream turned reality for video submitters on YouTube.

Take a few attractive snapshots

There are a few online sites that help you to sell photos. It’s actually a good ploy for those of you that are passionate about photography. If you’re an amateur, then you may test the water with sites like Shutterstock. For each downloaded image, you’re likely to achieve a commission worth up to $75.

Create your own graphics

Graphics and illustrations are often accepted by a few photo websites. For every download, you may earn a certain amount of money.

Be an insurance agent

By selling insurance policies, you may end up earning a handsome amount with each deal closure. Even when the policies are renewed by your customers, you’ll earn an extra commission.

Achieve stock dividends

Stock investments are among all natural ways of securing a passive income. These stocks yield dividends worth great percentages more frequently.

You must remember that every legitimate way of earning money takes you through a passing phase. It’s not like how easily you earn money in the casinos nowadays.

The ways mentioned above will help you create wealth without worrying much about how the legal authorities will perceive them. Leading a stress-free life is more important than pursuing money in an illegitimate way.